Ice Gear

Last weekend I got out to the Quarry with Tracy and Shawn. Awesome day but my gear was left in a a bit of disarray.

It started to fall apart right away once I realized that I forgot my waterproof pants in Fredericton the night before. Rookie mistake. I thought about the prospect of freezing my nuts all day climbing in just tights but that didn't seem like an awesome plan. I put out a plea for spare pants and Tracy came to the rescue... showing up with 6 pairs of softshells from Rob (just the ones he decided not to take to N.H. last weekend). Seriously... Rob has more invested in fine trousers than I have in my entire ice rack.

On the way to the crag I guess my helmet fetched up on something and the chin strap pulled apart from the foam shell. It turns out that the critical linkage is a plastic pin about 1mm in diameter. Now I love this helmet but it's been rendered useless by this. I mailed Wild Country Sunday night since they claim to carry a 3 year guarantee but I haven't heard from them yet.

Sometime during the day my super sweet jacket pocket came unglued from the chest. Amazingly I didn't loose my keys, phone, or anything else as far as I can tell. This jacket is a few years old now and it's been beat to hell so it really doesn't owe me anything. That said, I still wrote Patagonia to see what they could do. They responded in a day and offered to inspect and repair/replace the sucker under warranty (awesome!) but the catch is that I'd have to send it to the states and be without for the next 8-10 weeks. In the big scheme of things that just wasn't worth it so I re-glued it last night. Hope it holds. Turns out that most new Patagonia jackets are fugly anyway so I'm better off with the old one.


It wasn't all bad though: two gear wins to mention...

Frosty grips. Anyone who leads ice should be wearing these. They'll beat the crap out of your $100 guide gloves any day. These rubber/acrylic $6 jobs are bad ass! Specifically hunt around for the winterized tick versions. Last week I painted a thick coat of silicone seam sealer all over the back side of them to make them close to waterproof. Worked awesome. Nothing offers more dexterity for clipping/unclipping screws and they are good in short stints down to about -8. While belaying/seconding keep them in your armpit pockets to have them warm for the lead. High-vis yellow is way cooler than the blue copies available.

Foam tape. I've been suffering a bit with my new tools being slippery/cold on the upper position. Since I ordered a new rope last week I decided to shop around MEC for a solution. What I found was foam/gel tape used to wrap handlebars on road bikes for the winter. This stuff is nice and it's cheap. For $10 I got enough to do 4 tools. I used it last weekend and it worked awesome. Insulates and provides a lot of grip. I put down an extra wrap at the top of the shaft which works well for choking up on the tool when your topping out in snow/frozen moss. Not sure how durable this stuff will be though so I can't give it the thumbs up yet but it looks promising.

The climbing itself last weekend was good to. Thin in spots. But good.

Scouting Mt Misery

I managed to find partners Saturday willing to go to Mt. Misery... a feat in itself these days with a recent plague of skate-skiing hitting the Fredericton community hard. I very much wanted to see how the ice is growing with a few weeks left to go until Ice School. 


Stacey, Greg, and their girls were game and I also found more willing partners in Angela and Magda. The weather was good and the river frozen well. 


The ice is coming along but it isn't as far as this time last year. Too much dry precipitation and not a typical Saint John rain, cold, rain, cold, etc winter. We found a few lines worth climbing and actual a very nice fat flow in the shade which I lead. This was probably as steep as anything I've lead before. Between the number of screws I plugged in a short climb and Stacey's imaginative commentary below I was well entertained. Something about me wondering 'where the hell I was going to finish'.  Anyway... 


Oh, and I've been catching a lot of flack lately about my rope... so I finally ordered a new line tonight. 


A few photos made in crummy light but with lovely models: 

Stacey... kick, kick, thwack, thwack

Angela... kick, kick, thwack, thwack

  

Problems Around Fredericton

The last few times I've been at the gym I've been hearing some younger climbers talk about finding problems local to Fredericton. I've been there. Before owning a rack and a car we used to go around town after class buildering and chasing the few boulders that are local. It's good fun.

The map above locates all of the areas I know of around Fredericton with problems easily accessible to local climbers. All you need is a bike (and an optional crash pad). There's probably way more problems out there so go find them.

Now... when you're out buildering, use some common sense. Public buildings are generally o.k. if you keep a low profile. Private property is different. If somebody asks you to leave... just go. None of these problems are worth putting up a fight for.

For those of you with Google Earth, you can download the KMZ file for these areas: Here